iPhones own a massive share in the market. These numbers can tell you how many iOS users are out there! Most people often prefer iPhone over the others, be it in terms of performance or other relevant aspects. However, one significant drawback here is the App Lock feature.
Unlike their Android counterparts, iPhones lack a significant app that can help lock the apps easily. Moreover, there are no third-party apps that can help you with that. Well, you’ll need some way to secure your apps on the phone, right? Read to know how to lock apps on iPhone.
Locking Apps on iPhone
As mentioned above, you don’t have the App Lock facility here to ease the task. But you can pick any of these methods to restrict the applications you want to.
- Locking First-Party Apps
Though there’s no built-in system in iOS to lock a specific app, the OS allows you to lock all the first-party apps. By this, we mean all the apps developed by Apple.
- Head to the Settings menu and tap the Screen Time.
- From there, choose Content & Privacy Restriction and tap Allowed Apps.
- Toggle on and off the applications as per choice and press the Home button to save the changes.
Using this method, you can lock the apps like iTunes, Safari, FaceTime, etc.
- Locking through Screen Limit
Another way to restrict apps on iPhones is through the Screen Limit option. This update was rolled out by Apple from iOS version 12.
- Go to Settings and tap the Screen Time option.
- Choose App Limits option from there and select the Add Limit option.
Now, you can see the list of all the apps installed on your iPhone. You can choose all the apps that you wish to restrict or lock from here. However, an app can be restricted only to certain categories.
- Set the time limit to restrict the apps and click on OK.
Every app automatically closes after the set limit is crossed. You can increase this limit through the Ask for more time option. Here, you need to delete the old limit and set the new one.
- Locking using Guided Access
This is probably the best way to restrict unauthorized access to your iPhone.
- Choose the Accessibility option from your phone’s Settings menu.
- Enable the toggle present against the Guided Access option.
- Now, go to the Passcode Settings and create a passcode for Guided Access.
By enabling guided access, you are ensuring that your device gets locked on a single app of your choice. You can enable this option by pressing the phone’s power button thrice.
As mentioned above, there is no official third-party application to lock the apps on iPhone. But you can still install some apps like AppLocker, Locktopus, etc., to lock the apps on an iPhone. These apps only work on Jailbroken iPhones and are not usually recommended. Best that you stick to the traditional methods listed above and avoid the risk of losing the data on your iPhone.